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Call of the Wild Marathon

This was my 23rd marathon. I ran it with my marathon/half marathon training group. We had a GREAT time on a beautiful day running along the Sammamish River.

The marathon was organized by Adrian Call, one of those CRAZY Marathon Maniacs! About 50 people ran just for the fun of it. He arranged a marathon, a half marathon, and a 20 miler for those who wanted to just do a training run. His wife made pancakes at the end, and let me tell you…pancakes taste AWESOME after 26.2 miles!

I started with Erin and Ron, but Erin and I were planning to do 5:1 run/walk, and Ron wanted to run it in. We lost him at the first walk, but were hoping to catch back up again. We never did as he was a speed demon!

Half marathoners from JF Runners were: Trista, Gloria, Shirley (and her hubby), Tamie, Becky, and Megan! They ALL finished their first half marathon and everyone felt relatively good at the end! We missed having Torie and Cindy with us, but Torie was in the Methow Valley running her first trail run, a 10k (she rocked it) and Cindy had finished her first half marathon the week before in Delaware!

I took video on this one, and here you go:

Run: Call of the Wild Marathon
Total Mileage: 26.79 (because I took a wrong turn so did extra credit)
Total time: 5:19 (although Garmin said closer to 5:05, but it did pause when I stopped at water stops)
Blessing: Running with Erin and seeing all my friends feeling so strong and powerful about themselves. Seeing my wonderful husband at four different places on the route. He ran a water stop for us. He’s the best!
Total Mileage for the Week: 77.92 my LONGEST week yet!

This was not my best run. I could tell within the first mile that my cold was settling into my chest. Fortunately it wasn’t bad enough to stop me, but it sure did sap my energy! I don’t know why, but I just could not get mojo going on. At mile 24 when I saw Roy for the last time I said, “Honey, this run is just sucking for me!” Of course at that point I couldn’t quit, but I honestly wanted to and that rarely happens. I know it was mostly mental, though. I was concerned that Erin was going to be okay. She had decided not to finish about mile 21, and I thought for sure we were just around the corner from Roy at that point. Of course every corner I turned, he wasn’t there. Three miles after I left her, I found him! Of course I knew she was fine in my head. She’s an adult, perfectly capable, was not ill or injured but was just tired. She’d hydrated and fueled just fine. But still, I felt bad leaving her. If I’d known Roy was 3 miles away, I wouldn’t have. My plan was to run to him (I thought he was within 1/4 mile…have I mentioned I have no sense of direction?) and let him know she was coming, possibly run back to her to make sure she was fine, then finish. So really I think it was the mental “Surely he’s just around THIS corner” thing along with “Should I go back to her? Should I go forward? Should I stop?” was over half the battle.

In fact, once I knew he was there, waiting for her, and she was fine, the last two miles were hard, but not nearly as hard as the previous three.

It was AWESOME to see Ron and Trista at the finish line. Ron looked tired, but happy. Trista looked fantastic, like she’d just climbed out of bed after a great rest! She didn’t look tired at all!

The breakfast was great…bananas, pancakes, cookies, etc. I had a pancake and a banana and a piece of lemon pound cake and a few almonds. Adrian’s wife and I swapped yogurt recipes and chatted. Finally Roy showed up with Erin. She looked great, tired, but really upbeat.

I am so proud of everyone! Erin ran her longest run (24.37 miles). Ron ran his first marathon. Trista, Gloria, Tamie, Becky, Shirley, and Megan all ran their first marathon. Way to go everyone!!!!